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CATASTROPHA! When Good Cupcakes Go Bad… or Learning To Be “Present”

Sunday I am usually bustling about with end-of-weekend hurriedness, trying to get it all done *now*: a fun Sunday treat (like cookies, or cupcakes, or something with flour and sugar), a real, sit-down (at the table) dinner, wrapping up lesson plans, recuperating from my long run, etc. Well, this past Sunday was no exception, but I needed to get us all packed up for a few days near Toulouse in the South of France with Mr. Fish’s brother-in-law and his family. Mr. Fish was called off (conveniently?) to play sound engineer, so I had to pack the bags, organize the stuff (it seems like since the Guppy arrived we have all this…stuff). Oh, and I promised my work pals that I’d bring them a treat Monday morning before we hit the road (often my edible ‘thank you’ card, and my little vegan propaganda tool).

Have I learned nothing from my yoga practice? Being in the present, really doing what we are doing, not thinking about the billions of things that need to be done or that you’re not doing…it really is vital to a happy existence. And to happy cupcakes.

I wanted to make Coconut Heaven cupcakes from Vegan With A Vengeance as a petit merci for someone who loves coconut. So far, sounds logical, right? The Guppy and I had nearly everything for our trip under control, so we began adding flour, sugar, etc. got the cupcakes in the oven and the Guppy in the tub. I rocked. It was all under control…

And then these horrible looking things came out of the oven. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not horribly superficial, crater-riddled cupcakes are still cupcakes, and they can be made to look more beautiful with some icing or sprinkles or something, but these things were all greasy and heavy, and when I tried to take one out of the pan, well, it was like a wet sponge. Despite a nagging feeling urging me to just look away, I felt compelled to try one. It tasted like a sort of ruined coconut flan. Huh. I pondered this kitchen catastrophe and it dawned on me that I used the entire container of coconut milk. Why did I do this? The recipe only called for a little less than half! I think because I was thinking of a million other things, about everything except the coconut milk. Oh sadness…

Like this:

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8 thoughts on “CATASTROPHA! When Good Cupcakes Go Bad… or Learning To Be “Present””

oh .. i forgot to mention, that when i looked at them inside the oven they were goregous and in cupcake form….and i took it out to see if they were done , but i put it back in….then i already saw they had deflated :/ If anyone knows what i did wrong please help… ps. my first time baking cupcakes evver and from scratch.

I don’t know about the coconut thing… because literally today i made Tiramisu Cupcakes…and they came out exactly like what yours look like ….deflated and sad :/ …i feel like i had over mixed… because i added everything and i followed directions and everything…. maybe you just over mixed them…. but who knows…..im still confused to what i did wrong :/

That drives me nuts when I do that. I once made a huge triple batch of chocolate cupcakes all at once and though I remembered to triple all of the ingredients BUT the sugar. I had three dozen cupcakes that tasted like bland chocolate bread.

Oh, what a bummer! I once forgot to add the sugar in a batch of cupcakes. I realized this while they were still in the oven and thought, “Eh, so they’ll come out more like muffins than cupcakes.” Not so much… There’s nothing worse than having to throw cupcakes in the garbage :-( You’re much better than I was about finding something philosophical in the experience, though.